NOVEL NEXT Chapter 120: Epilogue - Sunrise
Blood dripped from his mouth each time Arezu took a breath, keeping pace with the dying beat of his heart.
He knelt on the ground, surrounded by the remnants of the Visage that had shattered into mirror shards after impaling the broken crystal blade into his heart.
Yet as he slowly lost strength and his vision began to fade into darkness, he kept his gaze fixed on the distant clocktower—where Lynn and the others were.
A triumphant smile crossed his lips as he heard a familiar voice faintly carried by the wind.
Even after witnessing the attack on the clocktower fail, hearing the agonizing sound of the bell, and seeing the terrifying reflection on the mirrored ground, Arezu did not despair.
Instead, Arezu accepted his fated end as he prepared himself to offer one final atonement.
"I'm the fool who cursed the world."
It was the confession of the sin she committed—the sin that stained his blood and flesh.
"With my body drenched in their blood, I stand alone where all are buried."
It was the realization of the consequences of what she had done—bringing the end of days to her world.
"With my hands weighed down by their deaths, I wielded a thousand blades."
And it was the atonement of the punishment she deserved—for them to fight and offer their lives to save the world she had cursed.
"The curse that begins and ends with my desire, I call upon the Gate of Abyss."
With those words, Arezu unleashed the power entrusted to him by his fallen comrades—the power that was supposed to save their world.
Arezu stood on weakened legs.
With trembling hands, he gathered his mana and conjured a rusted metal longbow.
As he drew back his bow, a rusted metal arrow began to take shape.
Then he steadied his stance and aimed at his target.
"At the top of the clocktower—right, Lynn?"
---
Although her body was beyond exhausted, Lynn continued to run—back toward where she had left Arezu.
She couldn't remember when the faint yet thunderous echoes of Arezu's clash with the Crystal Blade had gone silent.
She couldn't recall when the trembling of the ground stopped.
All Lynn knew was that it was Arezu's strange mana that had engulfed the entire town and created a new dungeon that lasted only a few seconds.
The arrow of light—bearing a force equal to an advanced-level mystic spell—that destroyed the top of the clocktower along with the Dungeon Core had also come from Arezu's direction, convincing Lynn that it was him who unleashed the attack.
The town had reverted to normal, and all the undead Visages shattered into mirror shards upon the destruction of the dungeon.
The dawning light proved they had survived—yet Lynn's intuition, her ominous feeling, still remained.
And what she found among the rubble at the center of the destruction was exactly what she feared.
"Arezu—"
---
"Arezu?"
"Hannah..."
It was Hannah whom Arezu first saw when he opened his eyes.
Confused about everything—what had happened after he lost consciousness, how he had survived, and where he was—Arezu surveyed his surroundings while lying on a makeshift bed, only to see Liz sitting behind Hannah, glaring at him intently.
Arezu soon realized that the three of them were inside a makeshift tent. Yet despite everything he was concerned about, Arezu's first question was—
"Where's Lynn?"
Hannah helped Arezu sit up on the bed, then promptly answered his question.
"I just saw her heading toward the town, even though it's still dark outside."
Hannah told Arezu that he had been asleep for a few days. But when he asked for details—about what happened to the town, the townsfolk, and the supposed survivors from the Annual Caravan—
"I think Lynn would prefer to explain it to you herself," Hannah said, giving a comforting smile to Arezu, as expected from a saintess candidate.
Liz, however, kept glaring daggers at him.
She didn't need to speak her thoughts for Arezu to understand. The suspicion in her eyes told him that Liz—and probably Hannah as well, along with everyone else from their group during the final battle against the undead Visages—had seen something they couldn't believe.
But regardless of her suspicions, it was Liz who told Arezu what he needed to know most.
"She was crying when we found you both… when you were asleep for days… and probably even now. So hurry up and go to her, idiot!"
Although Mirare Town hadn't turned into a dungeon again in the past few days, the remnants of the Annual Caravan still decided to camp outside the town.
Walking through the empty, dimly lit streets was enough for Arezu to piece together the outcome of the incident.
Upon reaching the town square, he found Lynn sitting on the edge of the ruined building—at the top of the destroyed clocktower.
"In the end… even I wasn't capable of saving everyone," Lynn said, greeting Arezu the moment he reached the top. Her voice trembled, hinting that she was still trying to calm herself from crying.
Those words were enough to confirm Arezu's suspicion: none of the townsfolk or the members of the Annual Caravan who had been captured by the Visages and dragged into the mirrors had survived.
Arezu couldn't find any words of comfort. Guilt weighed heavily on him for putting the burden of everyone's lives on her. The least he could do was apologize.
"I'm sorry for doing something stupid," he said, sitting beside Lynn. "For not waking up right away... and for making you worry and cry."
"Then you better make it up to me… and keep your promise," Lynn murmured, her voice muffled as she buried her face in her knees to hide that she was about to cry again.
Arezu just kept patting her head, trying to console her and help her calm down.
By the time the night sky began to shift to twilight, Lynn had already stopped crying. As the first light of dawn shone, she finally raised her face to watch the sunrise.
The soft glow of the horizon, the rays of light scattering across the clouds and atmosphere, was a captivating sight—but for Arezu, the sunrise reflected in Lynn's eccentric blue eyes was far more beautiful.
If Lynn had been her usual self, she would never have missed the chance to flaunt her vanity and audacity, demanding Arezu to kneel before her and promise to worship her forever.
But what Lynn said instead, as she kept her eyes on the horizon, didn't fail to please Arezu.
"I'm not gonna ask—but that doesn't mean I don't want to know. So when you're ready to tell me everything... I'll be there to listen to your story, Mr. Arezu."
"Thank you, Lynn."